Mthetho blew the audience away at the 2012 TedxTeen conference in NYC. Check out his performance below:

And watch Mthetho’s TedxTeen Talk, “The Power of Listening,” here:

(Mthetho’s name was spelled “Mteto Maphoyi” at TedxTeen…it was mistakenly spelled that way in his passport. Mthetho himself spells his name, “Mthetho Mapoyi.” BBC chose to spell Mthetho’s name as a combination of the two – “Mthetho Maphoyi.” Our SEO experts advised we follow suit so that googlers can find him, and Mthetho says he doesn’t mind.)

This Tuesday, Mthetho will arrive in New York City for the first time in order to present at the 2012 TedxTeen Conference. He’ll be giving a talk on his life as a self-taught opera singer in the townships outside of Hermanus, Stellenbosch and Cape Town, South Africa. He’ll be speaking between noon and 1:00 US Eastern Daylight Time (here is the schedule: my best guess is that he will speak at 12:30).

Ongx is one of less than 5% of Khayelitsha residents that graduated from high school. He knows that roughly half of this year’s graduating high school class in Khayelitsha will fail their final exams (http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/glaring-inequality-in-city-schools-1.1089207) and that those who do pass will have an uphill battle fighting to pay for university fees. In Khayelitsha, unemployment estimates range from 40% to 70% (as opposed to 3% of white South Africans who report unemployment). Ongx has petitioned the Western Cape government to help to start a school in Khayelitsha, but his plea fell on deaf ears. So this week, together with his bandmate Wara Zintwana, Ongx is taking matters into his own hands.

With $548 donated by (two) generous Creators audience members, Ongx and Wara bought a school. It is small and empty at the moment, but they are turning it into the first and most prestigious music academy in the South Africa’s largest township. And they’re doing it by hand.